Proactive compliance? Repercussions of national product regulation in standards of transnational business networks

This paper ('Sfb-Arbeitspapier') illustrates the links between the self-regulation of transnational business networks and the law by analysing the management of chemical substance risks in the electric and electronic equipment industry. National product regulation (and to some extent regulation of production processes) can influence standards employed globally by leading corporations within their network of suppliers and contract manufacturers. However, it is also shown that the diffusion of regulatory standards within transnational production networks is not a linear process: corporate actors to some extent selectively appropriate standards and proactively self-regulate substances of concern that are not yet regulated by state-based law. Similarly, the suppliers may also influence the contents of the standards used in the network. -- Dieses Sfb-Arbeitspapier veranschaulicht den Zusammenhang zwischen der Selbstregulierung von transnationalen Unternehmensnetzwerken und dem Recht anhand des Beispiels der Bewältigung von Stoffrisiken im Elektro- und Elektroniksektor. Nationale Produktregulierung (und zum Teil auch die Regulierung von Produktionsprozessen) kann Standards beeinflussen, mit denen führende Unternehmen weltweit auf ihre Zulieferer und Vertragshersteller Einfluss nehmen. Dabei zeigt sich jedoch auch, dass die Diffusion von Standards in transnationalen Produktnetzwerken kein linearer Prozess ist: die Unternehmen können sich bis zu einem gewissen Grade nationale Standards selektiv aneignen und vorausschauend eigene Standards für Problemstoffe entwickeln, für die im staatlichen Recht bisher keine Regeln existieren. Ebenso nehmen auch die Zulieferer Einfluss auf den Inhalt der Standards im Produktnetzwerk.

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Proactive compliance? Repercussions of national product regulation in standards of transnational business networks

This paper ('Sfb-Arbeitspapier') illustrates the links between the self-regulation of transnational business networks and the law by analysing the management of chemical substance risks in the electric and electronic equipment industry. National product regulation (and to some extent regulation of production processes) can influence standards employed globally by leading corporations within their network of suppliers and contract manufacturers. However, it is also shown that the diffusion of regulatory standards within transnational production networks is not a linear process: corporate actors to some extent selectively appropriate standards and proactively self-regulate substances of concern that are not yet regulated by state-based law. Similarly, the suppliers may also influence the contents of the standards used in the network.Dieses Sfb-Arbeitspapier veranschaulicht den Zusammenhang zwischen der Selbstregulierung von transnationalen Unternehmensnetzwerken und dem Recht anhand des Beispiels der Bewältigung von Stoffrisiken im Elektro- und Elektroniksektor. Nationale Produktregulierung (und zum Teil auch die Regulierung von Produktionsprozessen) kann Standards beeinflussen, mit denen führende Unternehmen weltweit auf ihre Zulieferer und Vertragshersteller Einfluss nehmen. Dabei zeigt sich jedoch auch, dass die Diffusion von Standards in transnationalen Produktnetzwerken kein linearer Prozess ist: die Unternehmen können sich bis zu einem gewissen Grade nationale Standards selektiv aneignen und vorausschauend eigene Standards für Problemstoffe entwickeln, für die im staatlichen Recht bisher keine Regeln existieren. Ebenso nehmen auch die Zulieferer Einfluss auf den Inhalt der Standards im Produktnetzwerk

Industrial clusters, firm location and productivity – Some empirical evidence for Danish firms

According to the economic literature, industrial clusters are groups of firms on the same location composing a production system with spillovers that can be vertical and/or horizontal. This paper focuses on horizontal clusters by exploring the spatial distribution of industrial clusters in Denmark. The key issue in the theoretical part of the paper is whether firms located in industrial clusters are more productive than their counterparts located separately outside industrial agglomerations. Firms located in clusters are potentially more productive than other firms because of the agglomeration advantages of e.g. networks, knowledge spillovers, human capital mobility etc. In the empirical part of the paper, industrial clusters are identified using municipalities as the spatial dimension. In the first part of the analysis, clusters are identified at the NACE-2 digit industrial level. Next, using firm-level data for the 1990s the relative ‘cluster-firm’ productivity is estimated. The study finds evidence of a significantly higher productivity in clusters. However, the magnitude of the cluster advantages varies a lot across industries and is highest in textile.Industrial clusters; productivity

Persistence in Corporate Performance? - Empirical Evidence from Panel Unit Root Tests

Persistence in corporate performance is analyzed in the framework of empirical tests of unit root behavior concerning firm profits. Data for firm-specific rates of return is applied in a set of panel unit root tests to address the question of persistence in profits both at firm level and for the aggregate level of industry-specific profits. The firm data all reject a null hypothesis of random walk behavior of profits but when smoothing profit rates at a two-digit NACE-code level for industries, the empirical evidence is more mixed as most industries show up with a unit root in aggregate rates of return, i.e. indicating persistence in corporate performance.Corporate performance; Persistence in profits; Panel unit root tests

Lifestyle production: Transformation from manufacturing to knowledge based production using innovation

During the last decades, traditional manufacturing firms in Western economies have undergone a rapid transformation. Two effects of the globalised economy prompting firms to outsource labour intensive production to low wage areas are the increased market size and the competition. Innovation is a prerequisite for a successful transformation process and this paper analyses this process within four Danish lifestyle production industries: textile and clothing and wood product and furniture, which are being developed from being traditional production-oriented industries to becoming much more oriented towards knowledge intensive production in the form of design and marketing aspects. The analysis shows that the industries have experienced a decline in employment and a positive development in productivity while maintaining a significant contribution to export. A 2008 survey of Danish SMEs reveals that about two thirds of the firms carry out innovative activities. The decision to innovate is influenced by networking activities, access to financial resources, firm strategy, export orientation, growth potentials and age of the firm while a traditional characteristic like size does not influence the decision to innovate; innovation is a prerequisite for firm survival in the four industries

First direct mass-measurement of the two-neutron halo nucleus 6He and improved mass for the four-neutron halo 8He

The first direct mass-measurement of $^{6}$He has been performed with the TITAN Penning trap mass spectrometer at the ISAC facility. In addition, the mass of $^{8}$He was determined with improved precision over our previous measurement. The obtained masses are $m$($^{6}$He) = 6.018 885 883(57) u and $m$($^{8}$He) = 8.033 934 44(11) u. The $^{6}$He value shows a deviation from the literature of 4$\sigma$. With these new mass values and the previously measured atomic isotope shifts we obtain charge radii of 2.060(8) fm and 1.959(16) fm for $^{6}$He and $^{8}$He respectively. We present a detailed comparison to nuclear theory for $^6$He, including new hyperspherical harmonics results. A correlation plot of the point-proton radius with the two-neutron separation energy demonstrates clearly the importance of three-nucleon forces.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Highly charged ions in Penning traps, a new tool for resolving low lying isomeric states

The use of highly charged ions increases the precision and resolving power, in particular for short-lived species produced at on-line radio-isotope beam facilities, achievable with Penning trap mass spectrometers. This increase in resolving power provides a new and unique access to resolving low-lying long-lived ($T_{1/2} > 50$ ms) nuclear isomers. Recently, the $111.19(22)$ keV (determined from $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy) isomeric state in $^{78}$Rb has been resolved from the ground state, in a charge state of $q=8+$ with the TITAN Penning trap at the TRIUMF-ISAC facility. The excitation energy of the isomer was measured to be $108.7(6.4)$ keV above the ground state. The extracted masses for both the ground and isomeric states, and their difference, agree with the AME2003 and Nuclear Data Sheet values. This proof of principle measurement demonstrates the feasibility of using Penning trap mass spectrometers coupled to charge breeders to study nuclear isomers and opens a new route for isomer searches.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure